Pinpoint Radiation

Endometrial Cancer Cures Reach 90 Percent

December 13, 1992|By Ron Kotulak and Jon Van.

One form of cancer that strikes older women appears to be very curable with a combination of surgery and radiation treatments, a researcher told the annual Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago.

More than 90 percent of women treated for endometrial cancer are now being cured, Dr. Sameer Rafla, director of radiation oncology at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, told his colleagues. That`s up from a cure rate of about 65 percent 20 years ago, Rafla said.

The endometrium is the lining of the uterus, and an estimated 15,000 new cases are treated in the United States each year. ``Advances in radiation therapy have enabled us to deliver higher doses of radiation to the cancer bed without damaging surrounding healthy tissues,`` Rafla said.

A MALE MOSQUITO TAKES THE PRIZE Most people don`t pay much attention to male mosquitoes because, after all, it`s the females that bite, seeking blood as part of their reproductive cycle. But female mosquitoes probably pay at least some attention to the males because, like many species of birds, they tend to be more fancily decorated than the females. While females have straight, sticklike antennas, the males have decorative, feathery ones.

Gregory Paulson, a Washington State University biologist, won a $3,500 grand prize in microscopic photo competition sponsored by Polaroid for his picture of a delicate male mosquito antenna.

WOMEN CAN REDUCE PAIN IN BREAST X-RAYING Another radiology meeting report addressed a problem often discussed by female patients, but seldom acknowledged by physicians: the pain inflicted by compressing breasts to make cancer screening X-ray images.

Researchers from Duke University reported that when women are allowed to control the compression themselves, instead of letting a technician do it, they are more comfortable with the procedure, and their involvement doesn`t hurt the quality of images produced by the equipment.

``It`s comparable to when you had a splinter as a child,`` said Dr. Phyllis Kornguth, a Duke radiologist. ``Chances are, it seemed less painful if you removed the splinter with a needle yourself than if your mother did it for you. Being in control of the experience removes much of the anxiety and can reduce the perception of pain.``

PUTTING ENDANGERED SPECIES ON ICE With 5,000 plant and animal species in the world`s rain forests becoming extinct each year, Gregory Benford of the University of California at Irvine has proposed a novel way to save many of them for the future: collect and freeze`` samples to form a ``Library of Life`` that can be studied genetically later on.

BIOLOGISTS BAR-CODE PLANTS FOR STUDY The use of bar codes to identify products on supermarket shelves is familiar to anyone who has shopped for groceries, and factory workers know that bar codes are essential to keep track of manufacturing materials. In fact, there seems to be no end to the applications for this adjunct of computer technology.

Now biologists throughout the world are collecting plants, drying them and bar-coding them to capture information about species before human destruction of their natural habitat makes them extinct.

Besides just the fundamental knowledge involved, scientists are concerned that potentially useful medicines derived from plants will be lost if we don`t catalog them. One portion of this effort is housed at Harvard University where about 85,000 type specimens have been cataloged in a computerized herbarium, said Jim Beach, data administrator.

ULTRASOUND USED TO PURIFY WATER The power of sound to stir one`s soul is a phenomenon well known to music lovers, but it apparently extends to chemical contamination as well, Argonne National Laboratory researchers have found.

By using sounds pitched at frequencies well above human cognition, researchers are able to ``stir`` contaminated groundwater and use the energy of ultrasound to convert toxic carbon tetrachloride into harmless chemicals.

`cavitation bubbles,` like a child creates by blowing air into liquid through a straw,`` said Argonne`s Hann Huang, a developer of the new technique. The collapse of those bubbles in groundwater produces the heat and pressures needed to drive the chemical reaction that purifies the water, Huang said.

NEW DEVICE DISMANTLES CELLS` GENETIC MOLECULES Automation has been the key to success in genetic engineering, and the march of technology shows no sign of slacking off.

Two Indiana University biology professors, Stefan Surzycki and Robert Togasaki, have invented a device called a ``bionebulizer`` that can break open cells and cut genetic molecules into a uniform size for isolation and preservation.

The device, which doesn`t generate heat and works at low pressures, may be valuable for genetic fingerprinting and gene sequencing.

COMPUTERS IN CLINIC HELP KIDS TO TAKE CARE Maybe the way to reach inner-city children with information about AIDS and other health concerns is the personal computer.